Not much to report.

My rides have been very sparse here lately between officially getting sick and yucky weather, I’ve only managed 2 or 3 in the last couple of weeks.

Just to touch on how the rides have gone, we’ve still been in the hackamore which is actually improving his canter in leaps and bounds however he completely falls apart when it comes to walking. He just doesn’t want to and knows he can get away with trotting every few steps with the hackamore because I have less control. So hopefully if I can ride on sunday I’ll go back to our regular bridle.

Also my dad made me a new locker for all my things so the mice don’t eat all of my stuff this winter. So I’m pretty thrilled about that!

Winter lazies?

I always find it comical how while most horses get extra crazy during the winter once the cooler weather rolls around Poncho does the opposite. He gets so unbelievably lazy it’s not even funny. He just DOES NOT WANT TO MOVE, at all! So he’s getting a reminder that cold weather still means we can work. And while we seemed to have hit a bit of a snag with our cantering I decided to switch him back to his hackamore. I think we’ll stay in that for atleast another month before going back to the loose ring. His canter is lack luster when we’re cantering around the ring. BUT if we jump it turns into a magically wonderful, forward, and straight canter. Go figure.

Also in less than a month i’m almost at the point of needing to clip the beast again! I’ll hold off as long as I can or atleast until i’m back to riding regularly. I’ve been on the brink of a nasty cold for the last two weeks and on Monday I lost my voice and have had a sore throat. So i’m attempting to not push myself too much. We’ll see how that goes.

Slowly getting there

Poncho still has a little bit of rain rot that DOES NOT want to go away for anything. So we’re trying to battle that as much as possible.

I’ve been a bit inconsistent with the riding lately. Between going out of town, rain, and me we’ve been less than stellar. I’m trying to not stress it and approach it all as, if i’m not 100% committed to the ride I just won’t. We’ll see where that gets us I guess.

When I have managed to ride he’s been improving with his canter. Not as crooked as he’s been. Our trot work is hit or miss depending on his focus level for the day. We managed to pop over a small jump the other day which he didn’t think was worth the effort and only trotted over it. What a goober.

Clipped the beast and never a dull moment at the barn.

Since Poncho will be staying in work this winter I knew I was going to do some sort of clip on him. I just didn’t know when I was going to do it. So when today rolled around and was a lovely day that I happened to be off I decided today was the day! It didn’t go quite as I planned however. First I ended up having to go a little further than I had wanted to get a new blade. Then when I got to the barn another horse was being clipped so I had to wait my turn. No biggie though I was in no rush.

2 hours later and we were ready to get going. First I was giving him a mini bath on his back and butt to knock out some rain rot he managed to get. While we were in the process of that we hear lots of screaming outside from horses and people. I went to investigate… The donkey had managed to get loose in a field that’s not her normal one and one of the horses decided she was no acceptable. So she was being ferociously chased around the field. Unfortunately I couldn’t do much to help because I couldn’t leave Poncho alone in the barn. But they managed to separate the horse and donkey with no injuries thankfully.

After that we were able to start clipping. It’s been awhile since he’s been clipped so I wasn’t sure how he’d react. He was fine with the clippers, the sound was a non issue. BUT the second some of his hair fell to the ground he was terrified of it. Go figure of course he’d be afraid of his own hair. Luckily he got over that quickly. He was really good minus occasional fidgeting. I still need to fix up the lines but my small clippers battery was dead so that will wait for another. Now hopefully this clip will be good enough and I won’t have to take more hair off.

I fell off the face of the earth

Well it’s been forever since I’ve posted anything. The quick run down of what happened since my last post. Poncho basically sat for a year. I was back and forth on the idea of selling him and quitting horses altogether. My funk lasted for an incredibly long time. Then one day I decided to hop up and see if he was sound undersaddle. He was.

So we’ve spent the last couple of months trying to get some sort of routine back into our riding schedule. Between him being out of shape and my horrible knees it’s been a slow process and we’re still only at about 20 minute rides a few times a week. BUT we’re making a come back.

We still have lots to work on from our time off. Apparently he’s forgotten how to canter like a civilized pony. However his trot work is the best it’s ever been. Go figure.

Here are some pictures just for the heck of it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where we’re at.

Basically still no where really. I have however hopped on him two times. He was still quite foot sore from pulling his shoes but he seemed pleased to work.

 

 

 

Is it working yet?

I’ve had the BoT knee wrap for a little while now. I’m still not 100% sure what I think. Although I will admit he hasn’t been able to wear them everyday so far. Sometimes I just can’t get out to the barn to put them on and I don’t want to hassle the BO with putting them on and taking them off every day. She’s does enough extra for him as it is.

Only more time will tell I suppose. Although I will note that now you can see another knot on his knee where the bone growth is…ahhhh his knee just looks so yucky.

WW

 

 

 

 

Plugging along…

Well a whole lot of nothing is going on right now. We’re trying the Back On Track knee wrap, it’s still too soon to tell if that’s going to make a difference. Only time will tell.

 

The detailed version.

So all this started just over a month ago. Someone who used to board at the barn was taking care of the evening duties for the BO since I was working at my real job that day. Well this girl turned Midnite out with all the geldings. Obviously Poncho is very protective of Miss Nite so sometime in during the night he got his nasty cut on the inside of his knee. Now I understand accidents happen and all but there was a note left for the girl about who was a mare and who was a gelding even still she denied that she messed up until the BO really pushed. WOW. Especially because I saw her the night I was out for Poncho’s emergency vet call and she told me she had no clue what could have happened. But that’s not the point.

In retrospect I wish we had done x-rays that night because then maybe we could have caught this all a lot sooner and maybe had a different outcome.

Over the following 2 weeks he was on solo turnout and was cold hosed everyday, until he got so cranky with it he kept ripping out the cross ties. But after all that the swelling was still there. He was sound at least for a time. I rode him twice just short rides, barely did anything. But with my knee problems there was about a 2 week gap from his last ride and the vet visit on Wednesday.

Wednesday he was NOT sound. Of course. X-ray machine comes out immediately.

I must say though I am super duper proud of Poncho he used to be a complete terror to do anything with but he was perfect for all this. Even the vet said something. (I’ve been using the same vet with him since he was 3 so she’s seen him and his absolute worst – in fact the first time she met him I was sure she would reject us as clients!)

The x-rays weren’t horrible per say but they weren’t good. Luckily he missed damaging the joint but only by millimeters – had he hit the joint he wouldn’t be here today. However the cut was so deep that it appears it hit the bone which is causing it to try and repair itself. Which is where the swelling is coming from and that probably will never go away completely. But we are just worried about getting his range of motion back in that knee because it is quite a bit off from the other.

Unfortunately because I’m poor our best plan of action is time and a BoT knee wrap. Fingers crossed.